WWW is the most user-friendly interface on the Internet, and it has become very popular in recent years. It is much easier to use than e-mail, ftp or telnet, which are other ways of getting information on the Internet. All you have to do is just click with a mouse. You can read texts, you can see pictures and photos or video, and you can hear sounds. You can interact web pages now, make choices about where you want to go and what you want to see. More information is added every day, and more people are using it.
For many people, the Internet is the same as World Wide Web. So when you hear "the Internet", the person could be referring to WWW.
Web pages have become more complex since we have started to use the WWW in August, 1995. Some of them can do amazing things. We believe that as it becomes possible to do more with web pages, they will become more and more important for teaching, research, and learning.
There are innumerable WWW sites (computer-based information stores) all over the world, holding masses of information of personal, academic, general, and commercial interest. There are a diverse range of sites, including those of educational institutions, libraries, companies, government agencies, etc. Many professional organizations have WWW sites. Even individuals have WWW pages now. Those resources are constantly changing. Some are being updated. Some of them disappear, and information is added to others.
B. Interactive
You can interact with web pages. Many of them have an e-mail address, and you can click on it and send an e-mail to the owner of the site. You can answer questionnaires by clicking on the answers. You can fill in forms. You can interact with not only the owners of the web pages, but on some sites, you can write your opinions or reactions on a form, and other people can interact with you, too.
C. Hyperlinks
You choose your route through the information with "stepping stones" from place to place (text links), sensitive maps ("point and click"), direct addressing, and keyword searches. Each web page is linked to other web pages, so it is very easy to jump to related web pages. This is probably the greatest advantage of the web. Certain words in the text will be underlined and in a contrasting color, and if you click on those words, you will be linked to another page about that topic. You can visit sites all over the world, and visit related sites through them. You will find more and more information about the topic you are interested in.
D. Multimedia
The material includes text, pictures, sound, computer programs, video, anything you can think of that can be displayed on a computer screen or broadcast through its speakers. Thus, if your computer has the capability, you can read letters, see pictures or videos, or listen to sounds.
It is not difficult to make web resources with multimedia, and anyone can make very artistic web pages, which are very colorful and attractive.
E. Easy to Use
You can click and see many related pages fast. You can bookmark URLs of web pages which you often want to see, so you can get to them very quickly. You can copy, collect, or order just about everything available on the WWW. You can copy a document and edit it for use. You can even copy photos. You can print pages very easily, too.
Note that documents are often in the American page format, that is, a different size paper to that used in the UK and Japan, so you do may have to do some re-formatting before you print out a document. Also, pictures can be very large in terms of the disk space they need, and they can present a number of printing problems.
F. Ease of Spreading Information
Not only obtaining information through the web pages, you can spread information through the web easily, too. Making web pages is not difficult. We have shown how to make simple ones in "For advanced users" in "Using the World Wide Web" at (http:/ /ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/kitao/int-www.htm). If you study how to use tags in HTML files, you can easily make web pages with text and provide information to anyone on the Internet who is interested. It is possible for individuals, groups, schools, organizations, etc., to make their own web pages.
You can put papers, reports, teaching materials, etc., on the web without much cost, and people can easily get access to them.
Once you make information available to the public, you do not know who will get it or how they will use it. Therefore, you need to be careful about what information you provide on the Internet.
G. Decentralized As we have explained, any resource on the Internet is owned by the people who make it. There is no central place to collect information, edit it, classify it, and make it available to the public. No one is checking the correctness of information. No one knows how long the information will be available. Users depend on the people who offer it.
There are various ways to find information, and there are some techniques to help you search efficiently. However, you need to work on finding the information you want yourself.
http://www.ling.lancs.ac.uk/staff/visitors/kenji/onlin.htm
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Most WWW pages are linked to other parts of the document, other pages, or other sites. You can click on words, phrases, or lines which are underlined or in a different color to jump to other parts of the document, pages or sites. You can jump to anywhere throughout the world. You do not type in long URL addresses each time. In this way, you can find more information related to your area of interest.
When you get a "not found" message when you try to connect to a page, do not give up immediately. A good way is to erase the part of the URL from the end to the last slash and press the enter key. You may open the web page which has a link to the page you want to see. (You can keep trying this until you get to the last slash.)
If you visit the same site frequently, you can use the bookmark function so that you can visit that site without typing in the long URL address.
To return to the previous site, you click on the button at the upper left corner ("Back") to go back to the previous site. If you have backed up and want to go forward, you click on the "Forward" button. To the right of the "Forward" button, you find the button marked "Home," and you click on it to go back to the page where you started.
One problem you may encounter is that you may not connect to the site, particularly if the site is very far away. The lines are not always very stable. It may be that nothing is wrong with the link. Try again, and if you still do not connect, try again later. Probably you will be connected.
There are many search engines for WWW. When you use a search engine, all you have to do is to type in keywords and the computer will find sites with those words. As you use different search engines, you will learn which one is suitable for you, how to type in keywords, etc. There are many search engines included in the WWW list in this resource. There are also some at examples (http://home.netscape.com/home/internet-search.html).
Using WWW is easy and fun. In fact, it is easy to spend too much time playing with it. When you use it, it is a good idea to take notes, if possible, with a word processor about what you found at various sites. If you do not keep records, you may not find the sites again when you want to, or you may not remember which sites you thought would be most useful.
You can make your own web page and keep all links on it. Then you can open it and click on whichever link you want to jump to very easily. It is not difficult to do. You can find instructions on how to do this at Using the World Wide Web (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/list/kitao/int-mail.htm). We have made larger web pages for users who are interested in TESL/TEFL, linguistics or communication. Open Useful World Wide Web (WWW) Sites (http://ilc2.doshisha.ac.jp/users/kkitao/online/www/). You will probably find something you are interested in. Click on it, then you will find more interesting sites, and click on them. This is the way that you can find resources which are useful for you.
If you find any problems, let me know.